Nate Boulton balances progressive goals with centrist talk

Gov. Kim Reynolds says state agencies have avoided service cuts due to this year's budget shortfall. But Democratic Sen. Nate Boulton, who is running for governor, is highlighting cuts to state services in campaign roundtable discussions.
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Nate Boulton, a Democratic candidate for governor, loped through tree-lined streets for his campaign announcement video in a cobalt jacket with an “NB” logo.

The initials stand for athletic-wear brand “New Balance,” not “Nate Boulton,” but why not take advantage of the coincidence?

Boulton, a 37-year-old labor lawyer and first-term state senator, is crafting a platform that carefully balances a progressive, pro-labor agenda with centrist rhetoric on budget responsibility.

His affinity to organized labor comes naturally. His father, Randy Boulton, is a 40-year union member and a leader of United Steelworkers in Iowa. The younger Boulton experienced his first picket line as a teenager during the strikes at the Firestone tire plant in Des Moines.

Boulton’s profile rose during this year’s legislative session. He had a prominent position in Democrats’ ultimately unsuccessful efforts to block Republicans’ rollback of bargaining rights for public employee unions and to limit workers’ compensation awards.

He already has 18 labor organization endorsements, with the Iowa Brotherhood of Electrical Workers joining the list Monday.

“So I look at the support that we’re getting from organized labor, a lot of it is from the things that I stood up for this past legislative session,” he said. “I think people within the labor movement wanted to see somebody who was not going to just let this go and be unchallenged.”

Boulton wants to not only restore but expand collective bargaining rights to include, for example, the use of protective equipment for firefighters. But he has not endorsed trying to roll back Iowa’s status as a right-to-work state, which allows workers to be covered by collective bargaining without joining the union.

Boulton talks about a lot of ways to increase state spending. He wants more for education, for social services, health care, mental-health treatment and the environment, just to name a few priorities. But he’s also critical of Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds for borrowing from the state’s rainy-day funds to cover this year’s budget shortfall.

“What’s frustrating is, this was a storm that we all should have seen coming, years in the making, as tax credits and exemptions have essentially doubled since 2011, that the resources would not be coming into state government to fund essential services,” Boulton said.

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He estimates the state could increase revenues $200 million to $300 million by cutting back on tax breaks and exemptions for the wealthy and corporations. But he balances what some would see as a massive tax increase by focusing first on predictability and accountability.

Instead of listing off tax breaks he wants to repeal, Boulton talks about new controls on existing credits and exemptions, such as capping the state’s cost, tying tax incentives to job creation and forcing a review of performance through sunset clauses that repeal tax breaks after a period of time.

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Iowa state Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, gives a speech during the collective bargaining hearing in the Senate chambers at the Capitol in Des Moines on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017.(Photo: Bryon Houlgrave/The Register)

“At least some first steps that need to happen are to put some caps in place so we don’t keep worsening the problem, as an immediate solution,” Boulton said.

He also casts the spending increases he wants to pursue as paying dividends in the future. For example, paying for mental-health care and drug courts help reduce prison populations and hopefully allow people to be productive, tax-paying members of society.

Progressives in Iowa roared approval this month when Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont was in town, arguing for Medicare for all. But Boulton says Iowa needs to focus on reversing the Branstad-Reynolds administration's move to hire private companies to manage health care through Medicaid. “We can’t get distracted from the issue that’s right there in front of us on privatizing Medicaid,” Boulton said.

Boulton also balances his resume as a Des Moines lawyer with stories about his background growing up on a farm in Columbus Junction and training as a teacher at Simpson College in Indianola before he went to law school.

With a half-dozen other candidates in the Democratic race and nearly a year to go until the primary, it may get increasingly difficult to maintain any semblance of balance in the face of a heavy pull toward the left.

If Boulton’s marathon-running experience is any indication, however, he is quick to learn from his mistakes.

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Kathie Obradovich(Photo: The Register)

He said he ran his 37th marathon two weekends ago in Okoboji and cramped up before the 18-mile mark. “I was flat on my back, it was not good,” he said.

Luckily for Boulton, a biker who was supporting another runner stopped and helped him work out some of the cramps so he could finish the race.

“So, hydration is very important. We should all remember to hydrate,” he said.